Las Vegas Marathon - RunMarathon

I said it last week in my blog that a 3:15/3:20 would be a possibility if I stuck to my plan. I dunno, after reading about mary pacers and thinking about my conservative race strategies this year, I guess somewhere before the race started I just said screw it and decided I would give a 3:10 BQ a shot. The race started with all 16k mary and half mary participants (including my wife in the half who nailed her first with a 2:08 on her longest run ever) so you basically had to shuffle your way through about the first half mile. This was fine as I didnt want to start out too hot like Madison. After things sorted out a bit, I spotted the red and white balloons the 3:10 pacer was carrying. Should I go for it? Cmon, its Vegas... So I kept the balloons about 50 yards ahead through the run down the Strip. I looked down at my pace and was in the low 7's. Yes, my safe plan was down the crapper after the first five or six miles. Things were pretty uneventful though there was a lot of scenery at first. We then headed off the strip and up a gradual incline with heavy sustained crosswinds of 15 mph. Around mile 9, I thought about working ahead of the 3:10's to catch a bathroom break but that never did materialize as I just wanted to keep pace. My windbreaker acted as a groovy sail into the cross winds and I thought about ditching this thing wasnt cheap and I took it as a lesson for my next mary. Crud.

Around mile 11 I decided to take my first GU, a bit earlier than training runs but I had only done this distance once before so I figured what the heck. I had 6 bottles on my fuel belt and it was covering the pocket that held my gels. As I reached into my pocket, the first gel fell to the road. I screeched in my tracks and picked it up, only to see the 3:10's about to run my azz over en masse. I think 'O fock' was about all I had to say at the time.

Coming out of that unscathed, I managed to keep the 3:10's in range. The pacer seemed to take the beginning downhill a bit rich to compensate for the incline in roughly miles 10-16. I had felt something in my big right toe about mile 12 and it would come and go, but overall still feeling pretty good. As we were running past some spectators, an older guy that had the look of a runner about him yelled to us 'Get a crew together or that wind is gonna kill ya!! He was right. If I wanted to take a stab at the 3:10's, I should have joined in the pack, but since I run alone most of the time, I guess I figured I would just gut it out alone, like refusing to draft off roadies on long rides. I suppose its different on the run, but that is my dumb stubborn nature and I guess I need to work on race strategery like this.

By mile 18, I think the incline and wind started to wear me down a bit. I eased off pace a bit, remembering that the last 5 or so miles was downhill into town and hoped I could recover to finish strong. Around this point I had been entirely through my Fuel Belt with my InfinIT mix. With the water taken with the GU, I was probably around 60 oz consumed of fluid. Legs started feeling a bit heavier, maybe it was the hills, maybe it was the pace, but not as fresh as the longer training runs. Even so, I plugged away. The bid for 3:10 was over and now I was just hoping to hit my goal of 3:15/3:20ish.

I kept in the range until about half way through mile 23 and then the cramps started. Fock. I was taking in fluids from about 20 on hoping not to repeat my severe dehydration in 2000. Just keep chipping away until the next water station. Now this pissed me off- the mile markers were not even close in some instances and they didnt have clocks on the mile as advertised. However, there was nada for a water stop on mile 24, so it was about 1.6 or so between stations from 23 to 24.6 or so. This pretty much sealed my fate as the cramps started getting worse. To top it off, based on the Garmin at dead nutz mile 25 (and the death march/walk well under way), there is a mile 24 sign and the workers are saying 'only 2 more miles to go!!!' I dont blame them for not knowing, but I was pissed at this point cuz this would have been a full mile off. Luckily, the course checked out to be where it should have been, but mile stations and aid was way off at times (with a few cut backs).

So 24 on up was ugly. Right calf and groin had cramps (never had the latter...man that sucked!!) I took walk breaks and tried to gimp out as much as I could until another sharp cramp hit. Damn I gotta figure this hydration stuff out (or run faster so it doesnt matter) Anywho, splits are as follows:

1.00 00:07:41
2.00 00:06:58
3.00 00:06:56
4.00 00:06:59
5.00 00:07:03
6.00 00:07:02
7.00 00:07:41
8.00 00:07:08
9.00 00:07:07
10.00 00:07:10
11.00 00:07:38
12.00 00:07:35
13.00 00:07:40
14.00 00:07:39
15.00 00:07:25
16.00 00:07:40
17.00 00:07:42
18.00 00:08:08
19.00 00:08:43
20.00 00:08:12
21.00 00:07:54
22.00 00:08:15
23.00 00:08:23
24.00 00:09:22
25.00 00:13:58
26.00 00:13:46
26.47 00:05:22




I didnt train for a 3:10, I trained for a race to come in at 5-10 minutes later than that. When I take a legit shot at BQ instead of just trying to go for it based on current training, there will be more speed work thrown in, a max run of 24 (which blew up on me as a high HR fiasco after 4 days of Thanksgiving eats). I did improve my PR by rougly 12 minutes, I took a stab at pushing myself and it just didnt happen. Hydration needs to be figured out as well as not wearing a freakin tent on a windy day. I am ok with this as my second mary and have learned a lot of useful info for future races. Now to go out and find one...:)

Stumbled around looking for wife, took off chip, kissed wife. We were going to get some eats, but apparently they were already out of bananas and nothing else was to be found. Real nice way to recover, so we headed outta the post race hoo-ha and grabbed some stuff from a convienience store in Mandalay Bay, stretched a bit and then ate a big breakfast.


Didnt train necessarily for the pace I was shooting for? Wearing a tent in heavy winds? (Might have added to overheating a bit too) This is my first time traveling to a mary and dont think our agenda the night before really hurt matters. Not sticking to game plan. I rolled the dice and lost. Just underscores need for race plan execution, but not displeased as sometimes ya gotta test yourself.


I dunno, this is only my second race, but some things to point out:

1)Starting mary and half mary together-why? Was way crowded at the start.

2) Water stations need to be where they say they will be. I am fine with the mile markers being slightly off so long as I have the Garmin, but to cut back on water stations cuz volunteers are light (they had signs up at the expo looking for folks to help with water stops) is a bad move, especially if you are talking later in the race. I didnt notice this, but my wife said tons of folks swarmed the mile 1 water station from the half. Does this really make sense to have this here versus at mile 24?

3) No GU stations as advertised. Was supposed to be GU stations at miles 18 and 21 or something like that. They were handing out powerbars somewhere, but that is a bit different than the gels methinks. Luckily I brought 3 just in case (miles 11, 15 and 21 I took em I think)

4)SOME kind of food, anything after the race. The Mrs informed me that the half mary folks (well, some of em) got at the bananas shortly before I came in. There was no food in sight anywhere (maybe I missed it, but have heard similar complaints)

I think these guys need to get their legs under them and determine where they want to go with this thing. Needs a bit more polish. Decent course, lots of port o lets, ok fan support and a swell medal. Will keep an eye on the kinks before future consideration though (unless I just feel up for Vegas again...)